Right up the Ares II

[antonio66]

Here is an interior photo, Stu. Also shows the R2R resistor ladders.

I mght take the lid off mine as there is a non-invasive tweak which involves 'tuning' the tension of the casing. Could be fun.

Damn, this thing is good.

That's a generously sized potted toroid in there. I take it the block of capacitors near the front panel are all smoothing caps? Lots of small ones in parallel is a good way to do it in some respects.

Lucky you. I'm dead jealous. Final end game dac then Fret ?

End game dac, my Ares.

Next on the list, the Magician Pegasus, followed by the Halo Spring and finally the Rockna. Ok the Rockna might have to wait for that elusive lottery win.

Pleased you're enjoying the Ares Fretless, I thought it would be very good, many folk preferring it over the Topping D90, I think that just depends on your preferences. Still have to put a few more hours on it, but I'm sure you get a real flavour for what the dac can do.

[Fretless]

Having read up on the background of the Musician Pegasus (ripped off Denafrips design) - if I had the cash then it would immediately be one of the bigger Denafrips DACs.

Luckily the Ares is immensely satisfying.

[antonio66]

The R2R ladders are physically constructed from pairs of resistors. Carefully selected to be extremely close-matching. This is 'old-school' as NOS units from Metrum (for example) do this within a single chip. The work involved in matching and mounting these resistor sets is also mind-boggling when you consider the low cost of this DAC.

Having the Ares in Non-OverSampling mode the sound is richer, more enveloping and I feel that I am more involved and pulled-into the music. Putting albums on, almost at random, and just not wanting to stop listening.

The SPDIF connection is back up to being on a par with USB - the Teradak DACs being so audibly orientated towards USB that other connections suffer. So, at last I can enjoy playing CD's on the CXC again! So long neglected that I had forgotten what a great transport it is.

The internals of the Denafrips Ares are set so that if another input is selected, the USB receiving circuits completely switch off. In practice, this means that my streaming PC loses the connection to the DAC and needs to be rebooted in order to find it again - and make sure that the DAC USB is active first so that the PC can 'see' it.

Denafrips did this to avoid digital 'noise' from one input affecting another. Seems sensible.

Okay - more music, maestro!

[Fretless]

Another observation:

My Cubes are doing a trick that I had previously experienced with Magnepan panels - Instruments and sounds emerging and hanging in space as a sort of oil-painting above the speakers.

This brings me back to my very first experience of NVA loudspeakers at a demo back in the 80's. Big, black, strange objects creating an arch of sound above an audio installation. Unforgettable.

[NSNO2021]

My two cents on the Ares 2 oversampling. The better the recording then the more likely I am to select non oversampling and conversely if the recording is a bit ragged then the more likely I am to select basic oversampling. In my mind it's akin to having a TT with two different tonearms/cartridge set up and using them to fine tune the reproduction to your particular preference.

[savvypaul]

My two cents on the Ares 2 oversampling. The better the recording then the more likely I am to select non oversampling and conversely if the recording is a bit ragged then the more likely I am to select basic oversampling. In my mind it's akin to having a TT with two different tonearms/cartridge set up and using them to fine tune the reproduction to your particular preference.

The RME DAC automatically switches to 'slow' filter when playing 24/192 files.

[NSNO2021]

The RME DAC automatically switches to 'slow' filter when playing 24/192 files.

That's an intelligent approach Paul

[savvypaul]

The RME DAC automatically switches to 'slow' filter when playing 24/192 files.

That's an intelligent approach Paul

The intelligence is all yours. The RME Dac does it without consulting me. You worked it out for yourself with the Ares, using your ears.

[antonio66]

Playing around with the NOS/OS mode settings on the Ares II, it is clear that each of the 3 possibilities does have its own identity in terms of presentation.

Finding OS Sharp to be too forward for my ears, I have been switching between OS Slow and NOS. For me NOS is softer, more 3D and natural, at the expense of some 'edge' in the dynamics and detail. OS Slow gives more muscle, better-defined detail and a wider soundstage, however I thought it slightly flatter and drier in character. As noted above, it is easy to switch (when you've worked out how) between modes in order to suit the music, time of day, mood, etc.

I'm too lazy - I just want one setting that will do it all (save up for a Denafrips Terminator?). Then I tried something else. My streaming PC has serious over-capacity in its Intel Core i7 processor and maybe I can set Volumio differently. The 'resampling' function I had set to 'native' for bit-depth and sampling-rate. The R2R ladders in the Ares DAC process at 24-bits and I remembered that my Teradak preferred getting a 24bit input - meaning it had to do less internal upsampling work and sounded better for it.

So, in Volumio, set the resampling output to 24bit and try again. Ha! now the sound in NOS filled out into a wider image, definition / punch that approached OS Slow but retained the organic and 3D qualities of NOS. Nice. In the next listening session I'll have to retry the comparison with OS Slow.

Getting there slowly. The Ares is still an amazing music-maker for its price.

[Bencat57]

I have yet to hear one of the Denafrips R2R units as the Denafrips Pro 8 Mk1 is nothing like the same architecture . Still like the sound and the build quality but there is always that nagging doubt .

There is comments i notice online that there is some variability across models made at different times (bit like the old never buy a Monday car ) saying the filter network as it is so subject to being close matched that it makes a difference but so far the general reviews and views seem to make this a possible spurious view made by people who have never heard one .

I am told that this is one of the reasons Metrum units are more highly praised as they are doing it in chip form so can get more consistent results. However I have my own issues with Metrum so prefer this option but not prepared to buy another DAC at this time .